News and Updates

Blog: Vlad Radinov (3.14.18)

Posted: March 14, 2018

Even before I tsar-ed any parties, I was a fan of CHIKARA. They seemed willing to take risks and pull wrestling in new directions. You could put their trainees and talent up against anyone, and know they'd have a match you could not see anywhere else. In an artform often derided for not listening to its fans, the story, the delectable payoff, the fan experience, seemed to be paramount.

Since late in Season 15, I have had the pleasure of helping to create that fan experience. Being your Master of Ceremonies has been a dream realized for me. I have had the opportunity to work with and learn from world class talent. I've had a front row seat to watch friends go from students to champions. Most rewarding has been the opportunity to entertain the best fans in wrestling. It's been a pretty great party.

It is with a complex depth of sadness only capable of being felt by Russians that I must step away from CHIKARA. Years of partying have take a bit of a toll on me, and like a gilded, hirsute Mary Poppins, the wind has changed and I must go where I am needed.

To the office and roster, my heartfelt thanks for letting me be part of the team.

To the CHIKARMY, thank you for support, encouragement, and friendship. It has meant the world to me. Any successes I have had I owe to you. I know you will embrace my successor as warmly as you have me.

I won't say goodbye, I'll just say good journey.

-VR

Blog: Percy Davis (3.7.18)

Posted: March 07, 2018

“How bad do you want it?” I can attribute this one sentence that’s defined my career, and the entire drive behind it, to my trainer. He asked it of me one blisteringly cold winter afternoon, in a tiny garage in Lafayette, Indiana. This same quote had fueled the drive of those before me in the form of Tripp Cassidy, Ruby Riott and even the man himself - Billy Roc. All of them have previously competed in the Young Lions Cup tournament. With examples like them to look up to how, could I not be humbled...even ecstatic... about taking my place alongside them as a Young Lions Cup competitor?

That being said, this isn’t necessarily my first time in a CHIKARA ring... as "The Freshest Prince" was once just a referee with a goofy grin and pleasant disposition. I counted my last three count in CHIKARA back at "Shock and Aww" on June 14th, 2015 and muttered under my breath something I’ll never forget. “I want to wrestle for CHIKARA so bad.” So I did what any other student of the School of Roc would do, I went out and I earned it. Three years later I’ve traded stripes for tights. I’ve gone from counting three counts to earning them, "Pleasant" Percy Davis dropped the nice guy act and became "Have Mercy" Percy Davis for good.

Throughout those three years, the triumphs have been grand and the mistakes equally...if not more so. For lack of a better term, I made mistakes and I bumped my head. But hey, lets be honest - fourteen states, thirty-eight companies and two countries ain’t too shabby. Regardless the great triumphs I’ve made these past few years aren’t related to my own wrestling prowess, but the growth of myself as a person. Watching Billy Roc retire back on November 6th, 2016 dwarfed the fact that I wrestled Ruby Riott that very same night. Watching my little brother grow into the loving young boy he is before my very eyes, overshadows even my future debut for CHIKARA. However, thanks to those two moments these past few years I’ve come to realize exactly what I’m fighting for and that makes me all the more dangerous to those competing against me in the 14th annual Young Lions Cup Tournament.

March 17th 2018 I’m coming to CHIKARA as a colorful young man with a big mouth, a wicked right hand, and a tendency to take a chomp out of those across from me. But even more than that, I am coming to CHIKARA as a man from the School of Roc with the support of every single one of my classmates. I’m coming to CHIKARA as an older brother looking to be an example for a small boy with the same smile as him. I’m coming to CHIKARA as a man who made a promise to prove just how bad he wants it. So to the fans: I hope you’re ready to meet the new Percy, and to my opponents in the #YLCXIV I’m not gonna Have Mercy.

-PD

Blog: Cornelius Crummels (2.12.18)

Posted: February 12, 2018

Greetings of the season CHIKARMY,

As most of you know by now, National Pro Wrestling Day is mere days away. Mr. Defarge and I find ourselves schedule to duel with "The Beach Bums" at this upcoming event. In all of our previous business dealings with "bums," rest assured, we have succeeded. These "bums" may be slightly more difficult to triumph over, given their sandy origin and greasy skin, but even soiled, sullied and unscrupulous men such as these have met their undoing at our hands.

These "bums" have claimed numerous victories in their career, but will find that Mr. Defarge and I are unlike any team they have battled before. After our victory at NPWD, we will advance into the Tag World Grand Prix, one of the most prestigious and renowned tournaments in CHIKARA's stories history. At TWGP, we will defeat three other teams in a single day, once again lay claim to those three golden points, and then challenge for the Campeonatos de Parejas. We have captured those titles before, and we will most certainly capture them again. It's been too long since Mr. Defarge and I had the taste of gold on our lips, and it's time to remind the wrestling world how we do business.